I sent out my first query letter last week, and I was filled with such relief that it was over and anxiety about hearing back that I took the next day to just stare at my email and decompress. Then I started my research for the next agent on my list.
The next query I will send asks for the first ten pages in addition to the query. You’re supposed to query agents when you’re manuscript is complete so that you’re ready when an agent asks for it. My obstacle is my 8 page prologue (a length I’ve been trying to reduce for years because I know agents don’t like prologues unless they’re done well). This process has distracted me from querying as I slave over what the proper course of action is. Having to change what has been a long-standing opening to my novel has filled me with self-doubt, and I’m forced to get down to what I really want to say in this prologue. Should I keep it? Should I shorten it? If I shorten it, what parts do I keep?
To my fellow writers out there, any thoughts on my course of action? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Among the Shadows 
Elizabeth, I am not sure what advice I can give as I am unpublished so still a novice. However, I just completed a writing course where the teacher (a published author of over 30 novels) very strongly suggested that I consider dropping my prologue to my novel or at the very least turning it into a chapter to appear somewhere in the book proper. So I am currently scampering about myself rethinking my structure and in fact the entire flow of my book. So I’m sorry I can’t offer much help other than to say, I’m with you, I share your pain
& I hope you find a solution to your dilemma. Best of luck!
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Thanks that’s one option I am considering.
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